UFC 82 Recap: Anderson Silva Keeps on Rolling

He beat the best that the UFC could possibly throw at him, and Anderson Silva (21-4 MMA, 6-0 UFC) again made it look easy.

The UFC middleweight champion knocked off PRIDE 183-lb. title-holder Dan Henderson (22-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) to unify the belts and cement his standing as the most dominant and best pound-for-pound fighter anywhere in mixed martial arts.

The fight — one of the biggest and most significant in MMA history — capped off Saturday’s UFC 82 event, a 10-fight card that took place at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The event drew more than 16,000 spectators for a $2.2 million live gate.

Although Silva reigned supreme, Henderson took the first round and made it interesting. After securing a takedown, the two-time Olympian tagged Silva with the occasional punch and elbow. He got the openings by covering Silva’s mouth with a free hand — and then punishing him with the free one. The system worked for the final three minutes of the first round.

However, the tides would turn in the second round as Silva’s striking began landing with pinpoint accuracy. Henderson closed the distance only to find himself in Silva’s clinch — a horribly dangerous position. Silva partially connected on what otherwise would have been a bone-crushing knee to the face. However, the blow was enough to send Henderson to the ground, and he’d never get back up.

The end would come soon after when Silva took his opponent’s back, locked in a body triangle and secured the fight-ending rear-naked choke. The tap-out would come with just eight seconds remaining in the second round.

In the week leading up to his co-main-event clash, Heath Herring bragged of career-best conditioning. And it paid off.

While opponent Cheick Kongo first looked as though he would simply muscle his way to victory, Herring eventually used his opponent’s size to his advantage to score pivotal takedowns. Once there, he transitioned into sidemount — a position that had Kongo as unnatural as a fish out of water. Unable to escape the position, Kongo was tagged with repeated knees to the ribs and shoulder. The French kickboxer repeatedly looked to his corner for instruction, but Herring displayed just enough power and poise to keep his opponent pinned.

It’d prove the deciding factor as two of the night’s three judges awarded him the second and third rounds.

Herring earned his first big UFC victory and won over the fans in the process.

“I wanted this to be a stand-up battle,” Herring said. “I wanted to duke it out with this guy. I didn’t think he was going to take me down. I didn’t train ground (fighting) at all for this fight.”

As far as strict entertainment value, a middleweight bout between Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara delivered. Neither fighter cared much for a ground game, and both appeared content to slug it out to determine the last man standing.

That man would turn out to be Leben, every MMA fan’s guilty pleasure. Both fighters connected on numerous big shots throughout the first round, yet neither ever seemed in real trouble. Punches would land flush, and they’d land with cracks and thuds, yet neither fighter seemed fazed.

However, that all changed late in the first round when Leben stunned Sakara with a knee to the head and followed with a left hook that dropped the Italian boxer. Leben swarmed in to finish him off before the referee called for the stoppage. Credit Leben with the TKO victory at 3:36 of the first round.

“When I came out, he actually hit a lot harder than I thought,” Leben said. “It takes a lot to hurt me, so more power to him, but I put him in the blender, took him into the deep end and said, ‘You want to swing? Let’s swing.’ That’s what these fans came to see.”

The storybook return of former UFC middleweight champ Evan Tanner from a two-year absence hit a roadblock in Yushin Okami. Then again, things never really got off to a good start. After signing Tanner to a new four-fight deal with the organization in November, the UFC had a difficult time finding him an opponent. Tanner told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that no fewer than four fighters had been offered the bout; each turned it down.

Okami eventually accepted the bout, and the test would prove too much too soon for the 37-year-old Tanner. After a competitive first round, Okami took over in the second, using the clinch to set up a knockout via knee. The bout was stopped as soon as Tanner hit the mat at the 3:00 mark.

The victory pushes Okami’s UFC record to 6-1 and could put him next in line for the title shot with Silva.

“It’s up to the UFC,” he said. “If they feel I am ready for a title shot, I’d be honored. If they want me to take on another tough opponent before getting a shot… then that’s what I’ll do.”

Jon Fitch opened the night’s televised main card in familiar fashion: with a win.

<!–

e9 = new Object();

e9.size = “300×250″;

e9.noAd = 1;

//–>

UFC newcomer and former IFL fighter Chris Wilson proved a game opponent, especially early on as he took the first round on one of the three judges’ scorecards. However, Fitch would run away with the next two rounds, closing the distance, and inflicting an increasing amount of damage as the fight wore on. In the end, he earned the unanimous decision with two scores of 30-27 and one of 29-28.

With a spotless 8-0 record in the octagon, Fitch wants just one fight.

“I’m ready for that strap,” he said. “I’m ready to fight for the title… Once you have the belt, then every fight you have is the toughest, so that’s where I want to be.”

PRELIMINARY CARD

What could be Andrei Arlovski‘s final fight in the UFC began with a whimper but finished with a bang. After going on the defensive to stuff Jake O’Brien‘s takedown attempts, the former UFC heavyweight champion eventually scored his own takedown in the second. Arlovski immediately landed in full mount and unloaded a dizzying storm of ground and pound until the stoppage at 4:17. With his UFC contract fulfilled, Arlovski is now free to negotiate with rival organizations. However, he wasn’t about to get a free advertisement during Saturday’s event; Arlovski was not awarded a post-fight interview.

After showing marked improvement during recent back-to-back victories, Luke Cummo came out flat in his fight with Luigi Fioravanti and was taken down with ease. Fioravanti scored a couple dozen takedowns to control the fight en route to a unanimous-decision victory. All three judges had it 30-27 in his favor.

Josh Koscheck, who fought the last fight of his current UFC contract, made his case for a pay raise with a come-from-behind victory over local fighter Dustin Hazelett. Although known as a grappler, Hazelett used his reach advantage to win a first-round stand-up war. However, when Koscheck did revert to his wrestling skills for a takedown, Hazelett nearly ended it with a triangle choke. In the second round, though, Koscheck connected on a head kick that sent Hazelett stumbling to the mat. A few follow-up punches on his dazed opponent was all it took for Koscheck to earn the TKO victory at the 1:24 mark of the second round.

Diego Sanchez looked — and fought — like a man possessed, dominating UFC newcomer David Bielkheden and overpowering him to take the mount position. The Swede initially kept his opponent tied up, but Sanchez postured up and rained down a fight-ending ground-and-pound barrage late in the first. Sanchez earned the submisson victory (via strikes) at 4:42 of the first round to snap a two-fight losing streak. The fighter, who publicly contemplated a move to lightweight in recent moves, said he’ll stay at welterweight for future fights.

In the night’s opening bout, local fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitu black belt Jorge Gurgel grinded his way to a unanimous-decision victory over Iowa fighter John Halverson. The judges had it 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in Gurgel’s favor.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?